Parks and Recreation - 2017 & Ron & Jammy - Review

The year: 2017. The place: Pawnee. The time is now. Parks is back, folks. Let’s do this.

Other people may have been worried about Parks and Recreation: 2017 after last season’s last minute finale twist. Those people were not me. I’m not other people. Other people may have been disappointed, discombobulated, and/or just relatively disgruntled upon seeing the reality of Pawnee and its inhabitants three years down the road. Those people were not me. I’m not-- okay, you get where I’m going with this. Basically, I’m super excited that Parks and Recreation has returned! Sure, it’s the final season, but all good things must come to an end, and I’m so psyched to see what this last batch of episodes has in store for us.

This week’s double feature started off with the aptly named, “2017,” a pick-up from the final shot of the season 6 finale. The Parks Department of Pawnee is not the same as it was in spring 2014 -- its members are now scattered ALL OVER…well, Pawnee. None have left Pawnee (so far, at least), which is good for us, because we still get to see them! Unlike two stupid beautiful buttfaces who moved to stupid Michigan and shall not be named. (Except of course when they show up in an episode later in the season -- yay!)

“2017” establishes that while Parks and Recreation is still business as usual, business in Pawnee has definitely changed. For one, Tom’s Bistro is actually a success! Not only that, but he’s got a couple of other successful businesses, including a helicopter that serves chopped salads. It’s exciting to see him come so far since he actually started putting some effort into his big dreams. In “Ron and Jammy,” one outcome of his (not-really-that-recent) success, is a newspaper article that draws the attention of former flame and former Snakehole bartender, Lucy. After some drunken encouragement from Andy, Tom and Andy take a cab all the way to Chicago/the Big Apple and find Lucy. Tom and Lucy hit it off once again, though instead of asking her out, he offers her a position as a manager back in Pawnee. Even if it doesn’t work out with Lucy and Tom in the end (she does have a boyfriend, after all), having Lucy back in the picture is a nice indication that Tom’s on the right track -- and maybe this time, a little less self-absorbed. At the very least, he’s less obsessed with Ann!

Speaking of Pawnee businesses, another former Parks member has gone out and started their own business -- Ron! Around the time of some mysterious incident two years prior to the premiere (codename: Morningstar), Ron left the government (that was inevitable), and started a very good building and development company, called…Very Good Building & Development Co. Presumably the fallout between Leslie and Ron had something to do with his move -- whether precipitated by it, or the direct cause of Ron’s departure. Ron and Leslie find themselves at odds (once again, apparently), when a large swath of Newport land comes up for sale. Ron’s company teams with Gryzzl to bid for the land, whereas Leslie, as Regional Director of the National Parks Service (Midwest Region), wants the land for a national park. It’s like the ultimate Knope project! Just a decade ago Leslie was slaving away to turn an abandoned construction site into a small park, and now she could gift Pawnee with a beautiful national park. It would be the perfect goodbye gift to the city she loves so much -- should she have cause ever to move out to bigger and better things.

The Newport land, and the battle regarding it, will clearly be a little bit of an arc for the last season. Parks has always done a really nice job with longer arcs, showing that comedies don’t have to hit the reset button at the end of an episode. Television is a long-form style of storytelling -- might as well put that to good use! Tell longer and winding stories! Develop characters! Go Parks!

Although Ron and Leslie have clearly been feuding for some time, the specifics of which I assume we’ll find out at some point, they put aside their differences in order to help Councilman Jeremy Jamm. Having fallen into Tammy’s trap at some point over the past couple years, the rather repulsive councilman is quite worse for the wear. Leslie and Ron work together in order to rehabilitant the shadow of a man, so that he can get out of Tammy’s clutches. Because when Tammy’s in a relationship, she’s calling the shots. And that includes dietary decisions and even which way to vote in the City Council. So naturally this storyline ends with Jamm back to his usual (horrid) self, and Tammy naked in a library.

Meanwhile, April has finally reached the point of adulthood, and she’s very concerned about it. Whereas her and Andy used to eat chili out of Frisbees in order to avoid their impending adulthood, but now they go to farmer’s markets and use crockpots and get sleepy when they drink wine. Which, as everyone knows, are the three signs that a person has officially become an adult. Her general freak-out over the couple’s lack of spontaneity and high level of maturity leads to a few things within the first two episodes. The first is that Andy and April impulsively buy a creepy, run-down house from Werner Herzog (who’s moving to Orlando in order to be closer to Disney World, naturally), and the second is that she reevaluates what she’s doing with her job. This is basically the same storyline from last season where she decide to pursue, and then forget about, becoming a vet. It seems like April’s final step to becoming the person that Leslie always believed she could be, is to finally stop doing whatever Leslie tells her, and find her own specific passion. Will that be with animals? Death? Creepy living art installations à la Orin? Who knows. But never has April seemed so interesting and complex as in these first few episodes of the season. As the character that started out the youngest (somewhere around 18-20?), the development of April has always been the easiest to track. It will be really exciting to see her continue in that journey this season, as a responsible, yet still spontaneous, adult, trying to figure out what comes next. And it will be great fun to watch Andy, being an adorable and sweet-hearted doofus, right beside her as she sorts that out. Except if he ends up convincing himself that he is actually moving to Chicago.

Donna has also moved on from the Parks department, and onto her real estate business fulltime. She’s on the Gryzzl team with Ron for the Newport land, a fact she discloses to a betrayed Leslie, even as she announces her engagement to Joe! She explains that she needs the money from the Newport deal to pay for her wedding -- Shia LaBeouf-designed dresses aren’t cheap. This engagement is exciting for a couple reasons -- one, Donna has let down a little bit of her mysterious guard in the interim, and it’s help lead her to further happiness! So good on her for that. And two, KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY. I mean, come on. So psyched.

Gary is Terry is Barry. Nothing really new on the Terry front aside from the name -- though the background on why he went through yet another name change was amusing. As usual, Terry is super gung-ho about everything, and only marginally more competent than Ed. Ed, of course, being played by John Hamm, reprising his cameo from the season finale as a completely incompetent employee of the National Parks Service who absolutely cannot find a file.

No sighting of the Knope-Wyatt triplets during the first two episodes, except in little picture frames all over Ben’s office. There’s a few slight mentions about them, involving the insanity regarding having three little kids (“They’re great, you know, they’re trying to destroy us, there’s three of them, it’s insane - but they’re great.”), and an example of Leslie’s powerful persuasive skills put to the test as Ben recounts how she convinced three toddlers that peas turn into cupcakes in their stomachs. That is some top notch mind control. It’s nice that the show acknowledges that the little munchkins exist, and they’re a part of Ben and Leslie’s lives, without shifting any focus from the show to them. Hopefully they do pop up on screen once or twice during the season, though -- that would be nice.

Ben’s still City Manager of Pawnee, and from the looks of things, he’s doing a pretty swell job. There’s a black-tie event held in his honor with a cake and everything! Apparently Pawnee is doing pretty well in 2017, and that is no doubt due in large part to the Knope-Wyatts. Ben shares a sweet moment with Tom when the impresario reads his real introduction speech to Ben. Ben’s steadfast friendship and guidance over the years leads to quite the tearfest between the two men. It also leads to his attempt to help April in her quest -- because even though she wouldn’t readily admit it, they are friends, and he wants her to find the same sort of happiness he’s found. Remember back at the tail end of season 2 when Ben Wyatt arrived on the scene, all grumpy and closed off? Well now he’s (mostly) put Ice Town behind him, he’s successfully managing a city, and is married to a fantastic and headstrong woman, with whom he has three kids. How’s that for some character development?

I know there’s more to talk about -- Parks is always jam packed, and they’re clearly pulling out the stops on their way out, but this is as much as I’m willing to write about the first two episodes of the last season of Parks and Recreation ever. I could write more, but honestly, this is longer than most of my college essays at this point, which signals to me that perhaps I should stop before I steamroll all of you lovely readers with my avalanche of words.

Sorry for the general frazzle here, folks -- I’m feeling a bit like Ed right now as I try to catch up on everything I missed while I was travelling the past few weeks. If you want to hang, I’ll be at Subway.

THE FINAL WORD
Since this is Parks’ final season, I decided, quite randomly, to start noting the last line of each episode. A bit silly, sure, overly meaningful, definitely, an attempt to make sense out of something big coming to an end -- well, not quite, but let’s go with it.

“2017” -- “War.” (Leslie)

“Ron & Jammy” -- “Five second rule!” (Andy)

What did you think of the episodes? Are you excited to see what the last season of Parks has got in store? Any predictions? Any wish list items you hope to see on screen before the credits roll on February 24th? Let us know below!

About the Author - Kimberly

Kimberly is a big TV nerd - willing to talk any show, any time. Her tastes are various and sundry, but she’s got a soft spot for comedy. She currently writes the SpoilerTV reviews for Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and About a Boy.

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